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One, two, three…let’s go!

What started off as in impulse buy at a silent auction last November is now almost ready to begin its real life. At the first ever Pause4Paws fundraiser nearly a year ago, I bid on and won a gift certificate for professional website design. I had toyed with having my own website for a long time, maybe even before Al Gore invented the internet. I’d even started three blogs on three different subjects but I thought it would be more serious to have a website. It would legitimize me as a writer, at least in my own eyes.

When I found the website design certificate on the silent auction table, I knew it was Meant To Be. Kismet. Fate. I would now Hit the Big Time.

Turns out that a website is much like having a blog. The best thing it has done for me is to give me a focal point for my writing, so instead of scattering myself over three sites and being erratic and intermittent, I can do it all in one place. One-stop underachievement.

The worst thing having a website has done for me is that it has honed my procrastination skills, taking them to a new and impressive level. At last, I am an All-Star Procrastinator. I am the Joe Mauer of procrastination. Once I had the means to create a website without having to addle my mind with things like code and html and whatever else they use, I found an astonishing array of ways to prevent myself from actually executing the plan. To be sure, I had some other curve balls thrown at me, the illnesses and departures of Daisy, my German shepherd; Samantha, the kitty who was with me for more than nineteen years; and Rusty, my faithful senior rescue dog who was just happy for a safe and warm place to call home. But still. I could have found more time in the space of a year to make my all my website dreams come true.

The wonderful website designer who generously donated her time for the Pause4Paws auction is not only abundantly skilled and talented, she is superlatively patient. I am sure that M has frequently wondered over these many months if I would ever supply her with the simple information and pictures that she needed to finish the project. I love the look that she has given me. To M – thank you so much! I hope your experience with me won’t keep you from offering your time and talent to others.

We’re almost done with the design phase. I’ll no longer be able to say, “Not sure when the website will be up”, as if that explains why there is no visible evidence of my writing efforts. Or, when a friend asks how my writing is going, I can no longer say, “I’m planning some really cool things for the website!”. (Planning = getting the mail, making a pot of coffee, working on a book of crosswords, doing the laundry, walking the dog, watching golden leaves sail from tree branch to lawn…) Although…when you think about it, anything a writer does is research. With this interesting reasoning, every breath I take should be tax-deductible.

So here I go. I am now obligating myself to come up with something to post every day or so, posts that are well-written and complete and won’t utterly shame me when someone says, “Hey, I read your blog!”.

Much of my content will be animal-related, but I am working on some other writing projects that I will share parts of at some point. (Yes, really, I am. Really. And they’re not just in that phoney planning phase outlined above, either.)

This site has couple of pages devoted to animal rescue. Animal Rescue Resources is a short list of Twin Cities rescue groups. I’ll be adding more as time goes on; I started off with groups I have recently worked with so as to get something going.

Featured Adoptable Animal is a rescued pet that is looking for its forever home. First up is Erica, a Big White Bunny at Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society. Look at her, share her page. She’s been in rescue for over a year and really deserves to find a home.